The Boston Red Sox spent last winter basking in the afterglow of their World Series victory. They also spent some of it pondering a couple of questions: Why do their games take so long? And what should Major League Baseball do about it?

At the request of commissioner Bud Selig, the perennially slow-paced Red Sox formed a committee of seven team executives to study the issue and recommend changes for the league as a whole. A volunteer corps of 30 front-office staffers spent over 350 hours combing through video of Boston's 2013 regular-season games, charting every little drag on the pace of play.

The Red Sox, whose games averaged an MLB-high 3 hours 15 minutes in 2013, are only about halfway done with the project. But the fact that such a committee even exists shows how little progress MLB has made in its attempts to speed up the game.

"This is one of the most critical issues facing baseball as we move forward into the next three, five, seven years," Red Sox chief operating officer Sam Kennedy said.

Selig has expressed concern about the pace of play for years. It has become almost cliché for fans to grumble about hitters stepping out of the batter's box, pitchers pacing around the mound and—no, not another pitching change! But for all of the attention the issue has received, the speed of the game continues to reach new lows.

Entering Thursday, the average game time this season was 3:08, according to Stats LLC. Never mind comparisons to the days of flannel jerseys and black-and-white telecasts: That is 13 minutes longer than the average time in 2010.

But length isn't so much of an issue as pace. In 2004, when home runs were abundant and baseball's pace was hardly considered blistering, fans saw a pitch thrown once every 35 seconds. In 2014, it is one pitch every 38 seconds. If that sounds like a small difference, multiply three seconds by the more than 700,000 pitches thrown in a typical season.

The rise in strikeouts, which have reached record highs every year since 2008 and are on pace to do so again this season, has only exacerbated the issue. That is because strikeouts guarantee two things: at-bats that last at least three and usually four or more pitches, and a whole lot of standing around in the field.

There is no more compelling form of action in a baseball game than the sight of a ball being put into play, regardless of whether it results in a hit. And batters have never had this much difficulty simply putting the ball in play. The result: If you're watching a baseball game, you're waiting longer to see less action.

Fans attending games on opening day in 1964—a time when many of today's baseball fans were forming a lifelong connection to the sport—saw, on average, one ball put in play every 2 minutes 29 seconds. Fans this season have seen a ball put in play just once every 3:30.

Though the Red Sox are trying to quantify them in extensive detail, the causes of slow play are no mystery. Whether it is batters pausing to fuss with their gloves, pitchers stepping off the rubber or coaches ambling out to the mound for a chat, the prevailing baseball culture is like the elderly driving culture: No one is in any hurry.

Add in a variety of smaller factors, including MLB's new instant-replay system, and it all adds up to a game that requires more patience from a society that has less of it.

The only real question is whether anyone in baseball is willing press for the kinds of dramatic changes in rules and enforcement that will make the game move faster than this generation of players is comfortable with.

Currently, MLB sends warning letters to dawdling players and occasionally fines the most egregious ones a small amount. But the most aggressive, innovative attempt to speed up play came last year from the independent Atlantic League.

The league started enforcing several existing time-of-game procedures that are rarely invoked in the majors. Batters were no longer allowed to step out of the box after every pitch. Pitchers were required to limit their between-inning warm-ups to one minute and, if the bases were empty, deliver the next pitch within 12 seconds. Managers were asked (though not required) to limit mound visits and make pitching changes between innings only.

For a while, the measures shaved about 15 minutes off games, according to Peter Kirk, who served as league president last year. But as the season went on, old habits resulted in longer games.

"These guys in the Atlantic League, and definitely at the major-league level, they've had a career's worth of doing things a certain way," he said. "And it's awfully hard to turn that switch."

Spurred by fans' complaints about the pace of play, the Atlantic League is now pondering more drastic measures, such as calling a hitter out after a certain number of two-strike foul balls. But it is difficult for MLB to act with such urgency after a year that saw its revenues surpass $8 billion.

Meanwhile, baseball's fan base continues to skew older, and the decline in the number of young players—MLB's best source of future customers—is only growing steeper. From 2000 to 2009, the number of children between the ages of 7 and 17 playing baseball in the U.S. fell by 24%, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, an industry trade group. Between 2009 and 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, the number fell an additional 18%, to just under 5.5 million.

"When I talk to my kids, they love going to the ballpark for a few innings," Kirk said. "And then they get bored."

The intent is to improve pace of play, not change the game. Since play was comparatively brisk all but the last 30 years, revert back to how the game was played in say the 60's or 70's: no dawdling by pitchers and batters, which is clearly the main problem. That ALONE would fix the problem without changing the game.

What baseball needs is more offense. Baseball is the only sport where the ball can be played on by the defense when it is outside the boundaries of the field. Think about it, out-of-bounds passes caught by football defense, or the basketball defense, or the soccer defense, are not allowed as interceptions or steals. What is the point of the left and right field foul line if defensive play is allowed outside these boundaries in baseball?

Proposed Rule Change: Eliminate the defensive team's advantage of the playable foul ball. The batter is not allowed to reach base on a foul ball: the defense should not be allowed a put out by catching a pop up or fly ball in foul territory.

Every team's playing field is different giving foul territory outs an advantage to some teams. (I wonder if there are stats on the differences?) Also consider how the hitters opportunities would improve, and the game be more exciting, if a pop foul did not prematurely end the team's (often times best) hitters turn at bat. A foul ball should be a foul ball, period, not playable by either offense or defense.

Commercials are a big factor. Every half inning there is almost 2 minutes of commercials (2:30 for national broadcasts). If you cut the length of time between innings to 1 minute, that would shave 18 minutes off all games right there. But MLB will never do that because that would cost them lots of money.

Baseball has become a senior citizens game. Very slow moving. Too much time wasted between pitches.Start a pitchers clock. The batter has to stay in the batters box. The pitchers has 5 seconds to deliver a pitch.Pitcher gets 2 tries to throw runners out and no more. Use technology to triangulate the plate for balls and strikes.

Other sports have a select number of time-outs, baseball has virtually unlimited timeouts

A few ideas to limit "time-outs"*Limit each team to only one intra-inning change per game (pitching or field)*The batter can only step out of the batters box once per at-bat*The pitcher has to deliver the ball to a base (a pitch to home or to check the runner when a man is on base) within 10 seconds

This would make the ordeal shorter, but involve even fewer balls in play.

I say, one pitch to each batter. One strike, you're out. One ball, you walk. Or maybe, just maybe, someone will actually hit the ball. Adjust the number of outs per inning and/or innings per game to keep the game under two hours.

Watching or playing baseball has always been like watching paint dry. Now it sounds like they've progressed to watching paint dry on a humid day.

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.